Newmai News Network
Aizawl | September 1
Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has strongly opposed the proposed Forest Bill to amend the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927 and said that some changes should be made.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference here, MPCC media department chairman and party spokesperson, Lallianchhunga said the proposal to restrict the practice of shifting cultivation within a given time frame under Section 10 (3) (a) and 34 (D) (2) of the Amendment Bill should be omitted as it will harm the interests of cultivators who are unable to switch to other permanent cultivation.
The MPCC leader then said that proposal for the inclusion of Gram Sabha should be made under Section 11 which deals with ‘Power to acquire land over which right is claimed’. Section 11 empowers the Forest Settlement Officer to acquire tribal lands and compensate the owner under the provision of the existing Right to fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, he also said.
The amendment should also involve the Gram Sabha in such appellate body before acquisition of land by Forest Settlement Officer under the Act. The authority of the Gram Sabha recognised by the Forest Rights Act, 2006 should not be diluted, he added.
Lallianchhunga then said that Section 16 of the proposed Bill states that the state governments have the power to take away the rights of the forest dwellers if the government is satisfied that it is inconsistent with “conservation of the proposed reserved forest” by payment to such people of a sum of money or by the grant of land.
"This is arguably unconstitutional as it will adversely impact the livelihood of millions of schedule tribes and other traditional forest dwellers", he said.
Lallianchhunga then said that Section 22 (A) of the Bill empowers state governments to acquire rights of the individual and community which should be either amended or omitted since it seeks to criminalise the entire community for misdeeds of an individual.
The Congress leader then said that the Draft Amendment under Section 34 (C) introduces a new legal forest category called ‘Production Forest’, which makes rooms for large scale privatization of forest resources.
He also said that the "most draconian and undemocratic element" can also be found in several sections in the proposed amendment.
"The MPCC strongly opposes the proposed amendment as it is likely to override The Schedule Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forests Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) which has granted legal recognition to the rights of schedule tribes and traditional forest dwelling communities to land and other resources denied to them over decades," the MPCC leader asserted.
"It may be pointed out in this connection that Forest Rights Act, 2006 has introduced a new paradigm of forest governance by giving the Gram Sabhas rights to govern, manage and use community forest resources; the proposed bill, on the contrary, intends to take away those rights from communities and hand them over to private sector and facilitate the diversion of forest land," the MPCC leader pointed out.
